Haggate Sun 13^th December 2009

Bit of a brisk day (F***in’ cold) this!. Up with the larks (well, more like the vampires really) at 6.00am ‘cos it’s a bit of a trog for us Yorkshire lot. Was just narrowly the first there and managed to ground the car almost straight away. (Note to self – get a proper motor!!). Much scraping of floor pans as we extricated ourselves ensued.

Motors started arriving thick and fast almost straight away. So I whipped out the old Nazi uniform and set about scrutineering without further ado. Nothing really to be found barring a few small niggles and of course the West’s from Northern Counties. They managed to snap the timing belt on their diesel just getting it off of the trailer. (You really should try and hold off knackering it until we’ve got our grubby paws on your entry fee!). In the end there were more bys from CROC than there were of ours.

“Il Championi” Barnes turned up well after everyone else and calmly cranked up the generator on the wagon and set Sue on with the bacon butties whilst he went off chin wagging.

We all set off up to the site about 9.50am. Still no sign of “Dangerous” at this point, despite him being C Of C. Apparently he’d been out on the sauce the night before which tends to make his head stick to the pillow until at least lunchtime as a rule.

Just as we got to the first section I discovered that I’d left the camcorder in the car, so I blagged Tony’s trialler and roared off back down to the car park in the best traditions of Comp. Safaris of old. Nearly took “Dangerous” out on the way down as he was just picking his way gingerly through the ravine in a nice sedate manner (looking distinctly glassy in the eyeball department) as I got there, pulling a good solid 35-40 mph requiring much anchoring of brakes and parking diagonally on the side of the ravine in rapid succession

Got the camera and, undeterred, blasted back up to the site, if anything, faster than I came down (should have put it in high box really as it was topping out on the rev range. Don’t tell Tony I’ve been hammering his toy!). Got back just in time as the first motor made its debut around a section that had  a very sharp left across a 45 degree hill that caught out a serious number of contenders and saw several sliding sideways down the hill, comical to watch but a bit of a brown adrenaline moment if your driving!

The weather seemed to be feeling a bit more benevolent and even the sun poked its head out for a quick look a couple of times before retiring back to its slippers in front of the telly.

The usual round of challenges ensued and saw Ray Fallows blow a diff and temporarily withdraw from the fray for a mad scrabble underneath to fit a replacement until the last section before lunch.

This was out on the peat moorland above the quarry itself and comprised a long deep gash in the ground filled  with (evill smelling, as we soon found out) mud and skirted along it’s length by canes.

As luck would have it’ it was Linol Richardson’s turn to go up first. We should have known to expect something out of the ordinary really!. Anyone who grins that happily all the time regardless on what’s going on around them has to be a bit unhinged. Anyway, they all walked the section and muttered and chuntered in ususal time honoured fashion and then Linol lined himself up at the twelve gate. It was at this point that things went a bit strange. Linol forgot he was at a CCV and somehow got the impression that he was at a NORC Comp. Safari and someone had just said GO..GO.. GO..  He went Brain Out, Gear In and floored it. He shot down the course so fast he floated over the top. I’ve never seen a CCV completed at 40 mph before and I suspect that those spectators who had been a bit too close hope never to again as they looked remarkably like the mud man from the marvel comics and smelt a good deal worse (although everyone else cheered loudly!). Linol, of course, emerged with the customary big grin firmly intact, and presented his card for a clear run. Dangerous wasn’t so sure and promptly changed the course so that everyone got stuck between the ten and seven sticks, mostly on their sides in slimy goo. He also made Linol run it again, which didn’t shake the grin for a moment, but did make the rest of us step back a good ten feet (and it still wasn’t far enough for a couple of unfortunates!).

Lunchtime arrived and back to the car park for food and anything warm that could be found and generalised tinkering.

For some reason, after lunch, the temperature seemed to plummet and all the gloves and pockets came into play. We were around the other end of the site and being without anywhere sheltered to stand was a serious mistake as the feeling rapidly departed from numerous essential bits of anatomy.

The afternoon sections were much more up and down and more in keeping with Brian’s style of setting out compared to the morning and things continued apace until section ten. Dave Hemming was just in the process of retiring with fuel starvation problems when “Dangerous” realised that he didn’t actually know where that last two sections were and had to dash off to find them in the Ninety (It turned out that they’d been set out by Martin, and several of the morning ones had been Phil’s handywork. Should you get the full ten points Brian or do you want to share?). They were found in a deep quarry hole back near the car park.

Section eleven proved a bit of a stinger and blew two front diffs, one for ray fallows and one for Darren Sinclair who chose to retire. Ray, on the other hand, had obviously been hanging around Linol too much as he decided that, with nothing much to lose, he’d run the last section anyway (nothing wrong with that I hear you say!). It came to his turn and he set of full bore, with so much sheer momentum that he actually got to the seven stick in two wheel drive.

It had been a long day due to the good turnout and light was failing so most had buggered off and missed hearing “Il Championi” being pushed into second place by Stuart “Daisy” Jackson from CROC. (We might be seeing a bit more of this now Colin’s bought Moose’s class 4 auto coiler)

Good day all round

Cheers

                                                Ade

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